It used to be that you could tell a lot about a person by the way he or she dressed or talked. The characters in NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, however, are just as likely to define themselves through their cell-phone ringtones and what they put on their latest mix CDs.

Nick (Michael Cera) has The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" as his ringtone, a reminder, perhaps, that he must not let his recent breakup with the haughty Tris (Alexis Dziena) get him down. Tris is long gone, but Nick is still sending her musical care packages, even though he warns her in a phone message that the most recent CD, "Road to Closure, Vol. 12," "will be the last one -- more or less."

Cera, who delighted millions of moviegoers last year in SUPERBAD and JUNO, continues his winning streak here, giving Nick a wonderfully dry sense of humor and a distinctively off-the-wall charm. He's appealingly matched by Kat Dennings, who brings a sassy-sweet, casually hip attitude to Norah, a privileged princess who feels more at home in the crowded clubs and dingy bars of New York City.

Unsurprisingly, Nick and Norah are brought together by their mutual obsession with music: When they meet, they're both trying to unravel the mysterious location of a late-night concert by their favorite band Where's Fluffy. As the two get past their first impressions of each other, PLAYLIST often picks up on the same easygoing, getting-to-know-you vibe that made director Richard Linklater's BEFORE SUNRISE one of the most endearing romances of the 1990s.

The movie surrounds Nick and Norah with a few colorful personalities, including Norah's perpetually plastered friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) -- one observer calls her a "Winehouse" -- whose side trip to a bus station is queasily funny, and a dreamy-eyed blonde mystery man (Jonathan B. Wright of Broadway's "Spring Awakening") who says very little but carries a powerful aura. Another major character isn't even human: It's Nick's battered, sputtering lemon-yellow Yugo, which several tired and/or tipsy New Yorkers mistake for a cab.

PLAYLIST also represents something of a quiet breakthrough in teen-oriented cinema.
Nick, who is heterosexual, plays in a band with two friends, Thom (Aaron Yoo) and Dev (Rafi Gvron), both of whom are gay and both of whom become pivotal characters in the story. Instead of snickering about Thom and Dev's sexual orientation, however, the screenplay takes it completely in stride, as does everyone else in the film; the fact that they are gay isn't treated any differently than Norah being Jewish or Nick living in New Jersey.

In other areas, the movie is considerably more conventional. Both Nick and Norah have former flames who are clearly unworthy of them, so there's not much suspense about the story's outcome.

At times, PLAYLIST flirts with the sort of devilish humor of Martin Scorsese's nightmarish New York-at-night comedy AFTER HOURS, but director Peter Sollett (RAISING VICTOR VARGAS) seems to be afraid of the dark.

The film is still lively fun, though, with a solid soundtrack (featuring such of-the-moment bands as Vampire Weekend and We Are Scientists) and few memorable one-liners, such as Nick's comment about how he never washes his pants because "I like to keep the night on them." If you can relate to that, you'll probably love NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST.